Creepy Uncle

Edit Locked

A version of the Dirty Old Man with some incest thrown in — a character who has a rather excessive and unhealthy attachment to their niece or nephew. If the story wants to avoid explicit incest, it might be made clear that the uncle is husband to the character's biological aunt; in his mind he might think it's "okay" since they're Not Blood Related. Oddly, it rarely intersects with Evil Uncle since most of the latter are evil and a threat to their nieces and nephews for different reasons. The female equivalent, the "Creepy Aunt", is vanishingly rare to the point where there are virtually no examples; such as there are should be listed here.

In Vampire Knight, Rido, Yuuki's parental and maternal uncle, pursues his teenage niece who is the spitting image of her mother. What makes him even creepier? According to Yuuki's memories, he had come for her multiple times when she was seven.

Mikoto and Mei's uncle Mayu from Mei no Naisho, who left the family when he was young "because there aren't any cute little boys". Cue him meeting his nephew.

Bleach: As an orphaned child, Haschwalth's sole caretaker was his uncle. He first meets Bazz-B while under a lot of pressure to hunt down a rabbit before he goes home to his uncle. His uncle catches up to him and addresses him in a very eerie and uncomfortably affectionate manner which instantly kills Haschwalth's enthusiasm over making a friend. When Yhwach culls the local Quincy population, it's implied that Haschwalth is not upset by his uncle's death.

In Chris Rock's comedy special, Bigger & Blacker, he talks about how your uncles prepare you for life due to all the subtypes of uncles there are (e.g., the gay uncle, the alcoholic uncle, and so on). This bit naturally includes an anecdote about how "Everybody's got that one molester uncle."

"GET THEM KIDS! GET THEM KIDS! HURRY UP, GET THEM KIDS! DON'T YOU LEAVE THEM WITH YOUR UNCLE JOHNNY! DON'T YOU LEAVE THEM WITH YOUR UNCLE JOHNNY!"

Advertisement:

Comic Books

In one Spider-Man comic, Spidey tells a kid worried about molestation about a kid who was molested by an older friend. He then ends with saying that that kid washim (Peter). The older friend looked suspiciously like Uncle Ben, and there is an Urban Legend that he was originally supposed to be Uncle Ben. Yeah.

In Daken: Dark Wolverine, Daken's psycho ex-boyfriend Marcus once attached himself to the Los Angeles criminal organization known as the Pride, to the point where Chase Stein knew him as "Uncle Eli". He was kicked out after the Steins caught him literally hovering over Chase's bed while the boy slept, though apparently he never actually molested Chase.

The one that holds the title is probably Anton Arcane from the [[Swamp Thing. This dude is so horrifying he committed horrible actions like possessing his nieces dead husbands corpse, having a relationship with her through said husband's corpse which includes sex, and then sending her soul to hell all because she wouldnt become his apprentice.

Comic Strips

Averted in, of all things, the Charles Addams cartoons. Fester is both an uncle and extremely creepy, but the creepiness comes from his idiosyncrasies as an Addams rather than any unhealthy attachment to Wednesday or Pugsley — in fact, he's the closest thing to a Cool Uncle that the two have.

In ASL In Red Rocinante officially adopts Law, making him legally his son. While captured by his older brother Doflamingo, poor Rocinante is horrified and disgusted to find out that his brother blatantly lusts after his son. To the point where Doffy wants to Unperson Law's boyfriend and take his place. The rest of Roci's family, his partner Kuzan and his father Sengoku are infuriated as well.

UNDERTOW: The step-brother of Minx's father sexually abused her for 2 years, starting at age 10. He was eventually arrested and given treatment.

Films — Live-Action

This is mentioned in a popular version of Les Misérableswhich is oftenshown in schools. To be more specific, Jean Valjean goes to get Cosette from the family taking care of her. Infuriated that they treat her as a servant, he demands that she be allowed to play. After they tell her to go play, the couple asks him if "Monsieur would prefer that she play on his lap."

This trope is mentioned in the "name your cliché" speech from Con Air about Billy Bedlam and his motivations for the murders that sent him to prison:

Garland Greene: He's a font of misplaced rage. Name your cliché; Mother held him too much or not enough, last picked at kickball, late night sneaky uncle, whatever. Now he's so angry moments of levity actually cause him pain; gives him headaches. Happiness, for that gentleman, hurts.

Frank from Hellraiser. Initially, his main target of interest was Kristy's stepmother, with whom he had an affair. However, he eventually tires of her, and is shown to later set his sights on Kristy, whom he even mentions has "gotten beautiful." He later tries to rape her, and in the sequel, tries again... and gets a bit further when she kisses him to distract him.

The direct-to-video horror spoof Jack Frost (1997) (not to be confused with the Michael Keaton family comedy of the same name) had the story of killer snowman Jack told by one of these characters to his niece (no incest, though). Even though the girl is American, the uncle is apparently British.

A deleted scene from Home Alone revealed Frank to be (possibly) one of these, as he gets enjoyment out of pulling Kevin's pants down. Which would be ironic, since in the sequel he accuses Kevin of being an inversion of this, calling him a "nosy little pervert" for recording him singing in the shower.

Uncle Charlie from Stoker is one of these, though less overtly sexually than most, and he's awfully concerned with his niece India being "of age". Too bad that's not the biggest thing wrong with him.

There's a gender inversion in the French film, Lila Says, wherein the title character is abused by her Creepy Aunt.

One of the subplots in Monsoon Wedding involves an uncle who abused the bride's cousin Ria as a child and now she's worried that he's doing the same thing to an even younger cousin.

Evie in 13 was molested by her uncle, reason why he ended doing seven years in jail. Probably the explanation of why she behaves like she does (drugs, sex, etc.)

Literature

Baron Harkonnen from Dune wants to molest both his nephew and his grandson. And when his memory-ghost or whatever-it-can-be-called takes control of his granddaughter's mind, SHE gets pretty squicky too. He's also pretty evil, but (per the trope) is not an Evil Uncle. Weird, eh?

In Mercedes Lackey's Brightly Burning, when Lavan bitterly remarks that his mother wouldn't believe that kids from good families — like the older kids at school — would be bullies, Lavan's fellow student Owyn shrewdly makes a few observations, culminating with a cut-off remark about "slick uncles" that act friendly to little kids.

A Song of Ice and Fire's Petyr "Littlefinger" Baelish qualifies; his protegée Sansa Stark, on whom he's made frequent advances, is technically his niece since he married her maternal aunt, Lysa Arryn. Made even creepier by the fact that he is trying to pass her off as his daughter... while calling her by his mother's name, no less!

Bridget Jones has one - although he isn't actually her uncle, just a pervy family friend. He's eventually revealed to be a closet homosexual, but this doesn't stop him making advances on her.

Karen/Charis's uncle in The Robber Bride takes this to its most logical, horrible extreme, continually raping her when she moves into his house at the age of nine. The abuse only stops when she starts puberty. He's creepily affectionate around other people and during the assaults, making it even worse.

The Ayn RandExpy in Illuminatus!, Atlanta Hope, is a cold rationalist anorgasmic woman who, secretly, longs to experience a sexual climax with somebody or something. In her back-story, it is revealed that a creepy uncle sexually molested her when she was twelve, exploiting her sexual ignorance.

In Warrior Cats, Clan cats are only allowed to breed with cats inside their own clan. This inevitably causes distant incest to occur sometimes. Ashfur is the half-brother of Sandstorm. Ashfur fell for Squirrelflight, Sandstorm's daughter and thus his niece, but it was unrequited. Ashfur then proceeded to try and kill Squirrelflight's mate and their kits.

In Was, Dorothy's uncle Henry turns lecherous as she grows into a woman. Aunt Em knows but chooses to ignore the molestation.

A rare genderflip occurs in The Perks of Being a Wallflower. Charlie's Aunt Helen molested him when he was young, but he repressed the memories. They come flooding back when he makes out and almost has sex with Sam.

Xandri Corelel's uncle used to fondle her when she was an adolescent. When she tried to tell her parents, her mother called her a liar, then forced her to hug the uncle.

Advertisement:

Live-Action TV

Game of Thrones: Although his attraction to Sansa is not new, Littlefinger's marriage to her maternal aunt Lysa in "First of His Name" makes him her literal uncle. She's also pretending to be his biological niece as well, so he's creepy uncle squared.

Charlie's Uncle Jack from It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia. That guy is waaaaaaaaaay too into having Charlie "show on the doll" where his old coach supposedly touched him. It's also been mentioned that he was always trying to wrestle with him when he was a kid. Charlie is very uncomfortable, even as an adult, with the prospect of sharing a bedroom with him (preferring to be homeless instead). It's definitely implied that the man is attracted to children (he tries to defend child pornography while on television at one point) and he may have at least tried to molest Charlie as a kid.

Sookie's great-uncle Bartlett in True Blood. Like in the book series, Bill kills him in revenge for what he did to Sookie. Sookie later learns that Bartlett had left her everything he owned in his will.

J.D. and Carla in Scrubs each seem to have had one who came to their ballet classes and said, "Keep dancing, pretty girl."

Merlin. Shades of this pop up in one of the early Agravaine eps of season 4... he doesn't actually molest anyone, given it's a family show, but he really gives the indication of wanting to try something with Gwen. Who, of course, will be his niece one day even though she isn't yet.

Troy in Community pretends to have one of these in order to gain sympathy from Britta and his drama class.

In an Inside Amy Schumersketch, Amy goes to a psychic and asks her to summon the spirit of her grandmother; however, the psychic only manages to summon the spirit of Amy's creepy uncle, Randy.

Eastenders had Kat and Zoe Slater, who are supposedly sisters but in fact are mother and daughter; Kat was raped by Uncle Harry (her father's brother, since his surname was also Slater). To make matters worst, he attempted to do the same thing with Zoe.

In the Very Special Episode of Family Ties called "Give Your Uncle Arthur A Kiss", Mallory deals with a friend of her father's whom she's known for years, but is now making advances to her, frightening her.

Profit: Nora Gracen was molested by her uncle Arthur McClane when she was a little girl. When Jim Profit learns of this, he uses McClane's crimes to sabotage a covert takeover of the Gracen company orchestrated by McClane and Nora's husband by convincing her to confide this secret to her husband. Jim later presents Nora the opportunity to get revenge by feeding McClane allergic food and giving her the choice to let him die in front of her or call the paramedics. She chooses to watch him choke to death.

In a Law & Order: Special Victims Unit episode in which an addled elderly woman is found in a stranger's home, a lifelong friend of hers tells the detectives that when they were kids, "She had what we called... a funny uncle."

Luke Cage (2016): It's implied in the first season, and outright stated in the second, that Mariah had been raped by her great uncle Pete, leading to the conception of their daughter Tilda.

Mariah: Her uncle ain't supposed to be her daddy!

Music

Part of the backstory of Evelyn Evelyn is that, whilst living at an orphanage that was actually a cover for a child pornography and prostitution ring, the twins were regularly visited by a large number of "uncles." The girls were too young to understand what was really happening, but the proprietress of the orphanage kept up the pretense that the "uncles" were actual blood-related uncles and the "nieces" had a duty to take care of them.

Tommy, an opera by The Who, includes the songs "Do You Think It's Alright", in which Tommy's parents discuss leaving the deaf and blind boy with Uncle Ernie, and "Fiddle About", in which Uncle Ernie describes himself as wicked before undressing Tommy and "fiddling about".

In Grand Theft Auto V Trevor will say Whos your creepy uncle now? while receiving services from a prostitute. Though it's very much averted with his adopted niece and nephew (Michael's children), to whom he plays the role of Cool Uncle.

Gamlen Amell in Dragon Age II has shades of this. If female Hawke romances Isabela, he asks them for details and apparently makes a few inappropriate comments that even Isabela finds uncomfortable. He also spends a lot of time at the local brothel, which doesn't really help his image, especially if you overhear the madam reminding him that he needs to bathe because "we've had complaints."

If the Mark of the Assassin DLC is done in the first act (when Hawke's family is living in Gamlen's house) and Hawke's sister Bethany is brought as a companion, she reveals that he has been sneaking into her room at night. She clarifies that what he really seems to be doing is going through her things in search of loose change, but the matter is never resolved or mentioned again.

Oscar Masan from Gone Home is the uncle to Katie's father, and certainly creepy. His old house, which he lived in alone for twenty-one years, has plenty of hidden passageways, leading to rumors of ghost hauntings after his death. Letters and journals found in-game imply that he was also a morphine addict who sexually molested his aforementioned nephew.

This was part of the the original conception of Summertime Saga, until Patreon objected to the direction the dating sim was taking; the Main Character makes money to buy goods and services by working on the small farm owned by a character who began as Aunt Diane. Aunt Diane expresses an interest in the MC, part of a theme in the game that caused Patreon to threaten to close the account, until all incest storylines were expurgated from the game. Diane is now a completely unrelated person and is merely a friend of the MC's former mother (now "landlady") and no longer her twin sister. The incredible physical similarity between Diane and Debbie is an amazing coincidence which is not mentioned in the game notes.

Voyeur: At one point, the player can spy on a conversation between Reed and his niece, Chloe, in which Chloe drops the bomb that Reed raped her when she was fourteen.

Visual Novels

It's implied that Satoko's Evil Uncle Teppei from Higurashi: When They Cry is grooming her. He isn't attracted to Satoko (who is 9-13) currently, but it's mentioned that he's waiting for her to mature a bit because he knows how pretty her mother was. Teppei makes Satoko cook, clean, and essentially act like a wife to him and he also makes her do some sleazy things, like having his niece wash his back for him.

Doc Scratch: Try to think of me as one of your kindly human uncle figures. In fact, if I were in your presence now, I would offer you candy to prove it.

MareInternum has Dr. Mike Fisher, who appears to have long-term psychological problems connected to having been molested by an uncle during his parents' divorce

Killing Stalking has Yoon Bum's uncle, who sees him as a substitute for his mother who he always pined for, but chose his brother instead. After Bum's parents died and a young Bum was given to his uncle and grandparents, Bum became victim of his uncle's physical and sexual abuse for years and it kept going worse, eventually ending up with rape.

The Monarch, missing his family connections, tries to bond with his captives, Hank and Dean, with fresh baked cookies and taking their ineffectual fighting as good-natured roughhousing. The boys are overjoyed to be rescued, Hank claiming Monarch "was getting all 'creepy uncle' on us!" (Which, if you were really digging for clues, could imply Doc Venture and The Monarch are brothers?)

Confirmed as of "Arrears In Science".

Sgt. Hatred is a variation as well. He is first mentioned by Hank in a passing reference to the guy being so creepy that Dean has repressed the memories of being his prisoner. Later he shows up as Doctor Venture's new arch-villain, but a few legal complications about how close he's allowed to be to any "beautiful young boys" come up here and there (the look of panic on his face when he shows up and the Doctor is running a day camp for preteen boys is priceless). Part of his eventual HeelFace Turn involves taking a special serum that suppresses those impulses, so he's not an actual threat anymore, but now he LIVES IN THEIR HOUSE, and is still pretty creepy from time to time...

Community

Tropes HQ

TVTropes is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available from thestaff@tvtropes.org. Privacy Policy